Mini Session Reflection Paper
Jaelyn Adams
Department of Social Work, Florida State University
SOW 5807: Clinical Social Work Practice
Dr. Fran Gomory
June 29, 2025
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What feedback did you need to incorporate? What was the feedback and discuss how you
did this with specific instances.
The feedback I received included working on letting the client do more of the talking and
asking less questions as it can come off more as an interview and transactional. In the mini
session 2, I tried to incorporate this feedback by asking more open ended questions and letting
there be more pauses in our session. Instead of rushing to ask a question to Cassidy or quickly
responding to something she says, I let there be a moment of silence to let her fully express her
own thoughts by just listening. Another piece of feedback I incorporated was asking Cassidy
what her preferred pronouns were. As well as what she would like me to call her. I forgot to do
this in the first session so I started out this session by asking her that. I felt like in my first mini
session I asked a lot of close-ended questions to the client so in this session I made sure to use
more statements such as how did that make you feel or tell me a little bit more about her feelings
of stress toward wedding planning.
In the first reflection paper you discussed where you wanted to go in this session. Did you
go there? Why or why not?
In this first reflection paper, I stated that I wanted to discuss more ways for Cassidy to
unwind and destress from her overwhelming schedule. I touched on this question a little bit in
our second session by asking what ways she has tried coping if she has. Cassidy had stated that
she changed her routine to go to a normal gym rather than doing classes. It seemed like this
change was really healthy for Cassidy as it is more flexible for her schedule than classes are. I
made sure not to give advice on this topic as it is very easy to slip into when talking about coping
mechanisms. I tried to allow Cassidy to think about what helps her the most and express her
thoughts on what has worked for her.
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Did you think you lapsed into problem solving? If so, why do you think this happened? If it
didn't happen, what happened instead?
I do not think I lapsed into problem solving because I worded my questions to be open
ended and had her do the talking. For example, I asked Cassidy the question: have you tried any
coping mechanisms for when you feel stressed out and do you feel as though they have worked.
Instead of telling her that she should try to take more walks or listen to music, she was able to
respond and explain to me that the change in her workout routine has been helpful in time
management with her schedule. The conversation flowed better when asking the open ended
questions rather than just giving her advice or trying to problem solve. She was able to think
about changes she has made that have been beneficial for herself.
What do you still need to do to improve?
I still could improve on my open ended questions and allow there to be silence in the
session. I feel as though I may panic when I feel like it has been too silent and just instantly
throw a question out. I do want to improve on that in my future sessions with clients. I also want
to try and get a little deeper with Cassidy but I do feel like it is difficult with only 10 minute
sessions. I also would like to get better at transitioning toward the end of our session and do
better at having a summary at the end.
What did you like and dislike about this experience? Why?
This experience is so helpful to me and I honestly really appreciated it. My favorite thing
about the experience is just the fact that we receive feedback. Feedback in these sessions are so
vital to making me prepared to be a good therapist and it is really the only time we will ever
receive feedback in this pretend client/therapist situation. The only thing I disliked about this
experience was the timing of the sessions. I felt somewhat rushed in a way and I feel like in
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therapy it is better when there isn’t a timer going that you have to keep an eye on. I just feel as
though I may have been able to get deeper and touch on more things if I had more than ten
minutes. Overall, this experience is definitely one I am grateful for and will always be able to
reflect on the feedback I received from my mini sessions.
